


Cataclysm

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [36]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Exposition, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Planning Adventures, Team Dynamics, Unresolved Emotional Tension, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-05
Updated: 2014-04-05
Packaged: 2018-01-18 06:05:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1417868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The fact that the fairy girls are still working on their filters leads, perhaps helpfully, to Eric giving a bit of backstory about his recent experiences with anti-vampire forces, and this in turn leads to a fair amount of emotional upheaval.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cataclysm

**Author's Note:**

> Part four, "Singers and the Endless Song."

Once everyone has trained as much as they’re going to – being prepared for anything, Tara cautions them, but mostly just not going into it trying to overplay; knowing that the hand-to-hand that Tara’s taught them tonight is sometimes more useful than, say, fighting with their fangs or with their light depending – they reassemble the living room and settle in to talk strategy. Eric takes the armchair and sprawls out in it like it’s a throne, but the regal effect is pretty quickly ruined when he tugs Nora into his lap like he loves that he gets to do now; Jessica and Willa and Braelyn and Charlaine cram onto the couch with Tara perching on the back, close enough to play with Willa’s hair if she did that kind of thing; Pam pulls a chair from the dining room; Adilyn and Sookie bring barstools over, Danika sits cross-legged on the floor.

“Tomorrow, then,” Nora says, and damned if she doesn’t sound just the primmest little business lady. “We’ll meet at sundown and go in groups. Eric and Willa and I will take the four of you.” She waves to the Bellefleur girls.

“Jess and I are gonna drive my brother,” Sookie jumps in. “If that’s okay?”

“I can handle it,” Jessica shrugs. It’s not her idea of a great time, but that’s just how things are sorting out, and she’s a big girl.

“Then Tara and Pam, y’all are gonna go to take Sam and Nicole and her group,” Sookie continues. “The more the merrier or something.”

“Who the hell’s Nicole?” Pam grumbles, because – ugh. More people to deal with?

“Among other things, a supernatural rights activist,” Braelyn explains all coolly and almost terse. It seems to be easier to use vinegar than honey with Pam, so that’s what she’s doing.

“And then we’ll all meet up at the camp, or near enough to it,” Willa confirms. “And go in, and deal with my dad and all his people, Sarah and –”

“Sarah… Newlin,” Sookie confirms, because she still can’t quite believe it (why hadn’t Eric said this part before tonight? She knows why, but it’s still annoying).

“Who’s Sarah Newlin?” Danika asks, because she’s trying _really hard_ not to listen in and also she expects that the comprehensive answer will help.

Sookie and Eric look at each other, neither sure where to start answering that question; Willa frowns because she’s pretty sure she could give an answer but by the look on her Maker’s face she’s almost certain it’s not her place.  Finally it’s Nora who says, “Sarah Newlin is the ex-wife of Steve Newlin, former head of the Fellowship of the Sun, an anti-vampire organization based in conservative Christianity.”  Her expression goes hard at the mention, as does Eric’s, but nobody risks asking about it yet, especially since she’s using her Official Exposition Voice.  “The group hasn’t been officially active since Steve disappeared and was then revealed to have been made vampire; in the interim, Sarah has become a well-known anti-vampire advocate in her own right.”

“And now she’s bangin’ my human dad,” Willa interjects, wrinkling her nose in disgust for a whole slew of reasons.  “A lot of this vamp camp stuff was his idea, but she definitely helped spur it along.”

“Fuckin’ great,” Tara interjects.

“Steve Newlin was a coward and a fool,” Eric declares.

“Was?” Braelyn asks.  “I thought you said he’s a vampire now.”

Eric shrugs.  “He disappeared again after I killed his lover,” he explains.

“That was the one who drained the fairy elder,” Sookie supplies.

“Point being, I don’t know where he is, and I don’t much care to find out,” Eric finishes.  “Sarah, though, between what I know of her and what Willa has supplied – Sarah is worth worrying about. Sarah is a true believer.”

 

* * *

 

They’re discussing battle plans – the layout of vamp camp that Willa snagged spread on the table, she and Tara marking strategic points of entry and attack with sticky tabs – and they have been for a while when Charlaine suddenly tilts her head at Eric and says, “You ever gonna tell us what happened?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Eric says, his voice dark because he thinks he can guess.

“With that Fellowship,” Charlaine prompts.  “Why you’re so mad at Sarah Newlin.  Sookie’s been thinkin’ about it since she got mentioned, but I bet you need to get it out, so all of us know.”

 _It_ being _what happened with Godric_.  Pam never heard many of the details of it, and neither did Nora, not really.  Tara and Jessica and Willa have no way of knowing either.  And the Bellefleur girls, well.  For example, half of this is just Charlaine getting frustrated that she can’t read it, but half of it is her genuine attempt to help.  Therapy or some shit.

“Charlaine, I don’t think…” Sookie begins.

“The girl is right,” Eric says, the slightest undertone of a sigh in his voice. “It’s important information.” He tightens his hold on Nora, presses his lips against the bare skin of her shoulder for a moment as he thinks.  “My – _our_ – Maker,” he begins.  “He made his choice, he would have gone through with it one way or another.  But the Newlins were an easy way out.”

There’s a note of bitterness in his voice, one that almost strikes Nora as refreshing (ever since she was a baby, she’s known her brother has a weak spot where their Maker is concerned, that he’s too willing to forgive and idolize) or anyway that would if she wasn’t also concerned about his sadness.  Tara moves to behind Pam’s chair and squeezes her shoulder, sensing her sympathetic distress.

“As you know,” Eric continues, addressing the Bellefleur girls specifically for a moment, “vampires are vulnerable to the sun, hence the name of the Newlins’ group.  _Humans_ walk in the sun, and the sun can be used as a natural weapon against vampires.  This was what they intended to do to Godric.”

“Your Maker,” Adilyn clarifies, though everyone knows.

“I am over a thousand years old,” Eric says.  “And Godric was older even than that.  It didn’t make sense that they would have been able to capture him for their sacrifice, but… After so many years of life, he had become – disillusioned.  He meant to repent for the crimes he had committed over the years, the murder and torture and horror.  He was tired.  He wanted –” And here Eric chokes on his words.  “He _wanted_ to meet the sun. Even without the Fellowship making him.”

Nora, everyone else can see, is starting to cry; nobody has seen her do that before, not really (for the fairy girls it’s quite humanizing, makes her a little less intimidating; for the other vampires it’s a crack in her usual exterior) and she doesn’t even think to wipe the tears away.  She – she’d known this, the suicide.  Eric had told her. But not even in this vague detail, and that makes it worse.

“It was my intention to stay with him,” Eric admits, and he nuzzles against Nora in a momentary apology for that traitorous thought.  “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“I’ll say,” Pam interjects.  Anger is easier for her than sadness; she barely knew Godric, but she’s sad for her Maker’s sake and angry for her potential own.  “You’d have been as selfish as him.”

“But he didn’t do it,” Sookie says, the _that’s obvious_ evident in her tone.  “Godric made him leave, and he did.  I stayed till the end.  And he was – he was at peace, I think.  As much as he could be.”

She’s glossing a little, but that’s okay.  The details don’t matter, not really, not when Eric is frowning and Nora is crying and Pam is holding onto Tara’s hand for dear life, when Willa is starting to cry a little too (mirroring her aunt once again, Tara notices, though Nora’s much farther gone) and Jessica has her widest sympathy eyes and the baby fairies are all shifting from sad to worried to sad again like they can’t decide which of the appropriate commiseration reactions they’ve seen on TV fit the situation best.

And Sookie, like she often finds herself doing, is trying to clean up the mess.

“I think we should get y’all home soon,” she says to the girls after a long pause.

And they look at each other, suddenly approximating shame. “I’m sorry,” Charlaine mumbles. “I just wanted to…”

“Usually we don’t have to ask,” Danika finishes, all sheepish.

“Don’t worry about it,” Tara says, and she’s not even just being nice. “I think maybe granddaddy needed to air that dirty laundry.” To get it off his own chest – not that she particularly cares, but at least now all his pain is out to be shared and he’s not gonna be facing this Newlin woman down with it simmering inside him making him act a fool – and to even further light a fire under everyone’s asses if they needed that motivation. “It ain’t a thing.”

“Tara is right,” Eric says, and though his expression is unreadable, his voice is stronger, more like normal. “We’ll all be the clearer for it tomorrow.”

Nora nods slightly, squirming in Eric’s lap. “And more driven,” she adds, standing. “Excuse me, I need to…” But instead of explaining, she casts a polite glance to the other vampires, then to the fairies, then she ducks downstairs.

“I’ll see y’all out,” Pam says to Sookie and the girls. Right now, that seems like a much better option than sitting here watching everyone be sad.


End file.
